Cricket:
Channel 2 acquires stakes in St Lucia outfit
By K.R. Nayar Chief Cricket Writer ·
St. Lucia Zouks
Dubai: The Dubai-based Channel 2 Group has taken stakes in St Lucia Zouks, one of the top six teams that made the recent Limacol Caribbean Premier League (LCPL) a huge success in West Indies. This team is led by Darren Sammy, the West Indies skipper that lifted the World Twenty20 Cup in 2012. Speaking to Gulf News, Ajay Sethi, the Chairman of Channel 2 Group, who made his mark in international cricket through the successful staging of the Legends of Lord’s global Silver Jubilee celebrations of India’s 1983 World Cup victory in 2008 in Dubai, said: “I wanted a team with some of the finest players as the appeal for the LCPL is global and will attract high profile investors. The stadiums where our team’s matches were held were full with sell-out crowds. I have been investing in sports business and I made this decision to invest on this team due to advice from West Indies legends Clive Lloyd and Michael Holding.”
Sethi has now plans to fly down players from his team to Dubai and train them at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Global Cricket Academy facilities to groom a stronger squad for the next year’s LCPL. St Lucia team is coached by the legendary pacer Andy Roberts with Matthew Maynard as his assistant.
“We had players from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Grenada, Dominica, Barbados and St Lucia. From Pakistan we have their skipper Misbah Ul Haq and Bangladesh’s hard hitter Tamim Iqbal. South Africa’s finest allrounder Albie Morkel and star opener Herschelle Gibbs are the other prominent players,” said Sethi, who has plans to rope in Hollywood and Bollywood stars as the faces of the team.
Channel 2 Group’s Cricket Radio holds the terrestrial TV rights for the Board Of Control For Cricket In India (BCCI) in Africa and exclusive radio broadcast rights for some of the world’s leading sports properties, such as the Barclays English Premier League Football, The Dutch League, World Cup Rugby, Wimbledon and Australian Open Tennis and US Open and major Professional Golf Tours such as US PGA, The Masters and Ryders.
